


A Bonded Pair

by coffee_and_wolfsbane



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Fanfic, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 18:00:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20457110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee_and_wolfsbane/pseuds/coffee_and_wolfsbane
Summary: The story of how Kyoko found her familiar, Regis, on the abandoned islet of the Lazaret.





	A Bonded Pair

Kyoko flipped through the written requests she had received during the day, sorting the notes into two piles: Night and Day. Some spells required a specific level of sunlight, others preferred the cover of darkness to work. When she got to the last one, she had to bite back a curse. 

_Perform a cleansing ritual on the Lazaret. Payment of 400 Vesuvian coins will be delivered to your premises tomorrow morn._ was written in too-perfect handwriting. Her first instinct was to throw the paper into the fire. There were a few citizens that believed the island haunted and needed exorcised, but Kyoko wasn’t one of them. A cleansing ritual would do nothing but waste sage and her nice candles. But 400 coins could replace the damaged roof tiles, and leave enough left over to start on the project she had been yearning to try. Sighing in defeat, Kyoko stood and stretched. It was only sunset. She could reach the island by dark. 

A few hours later, Kyoko had to rely on the dim light of the stars and her weak summoned flame to maneuver around the abandoned piers of Lazaret. She’d find the abandoned temple, perform a little spell, then back to her shop. She wanted to keep the time she spent here to a bare minimum. The island had a faint scent of molding flowers and burnt flesh, the combination making Kyoko shudder. She hurried towards the center of the island, pointedly ignoring the feeling of eyes glued to her every move. The temple was hastily built for the plague victims to pray in, so vines and overgrowth broke through the stone walls and the roof had collapsed a while ago. 

Kyoko set her bag down and started lighting the four candles she brought with her, setting them down at the cardinal points. As she set down the last one, the flame vanished, and darkness took on a new tone of blackness. A pair of glowing red eyes stared at her from a few feet away. She jerked back in shock, a defensive spell on her lips, but before she could speak a crushing blow landed on the back of her head, and she fell to the ground.

The acrid smell of rot and decay woke Kyoko up. Her eyes refused to focus as her head screamed in pain. She could taste blood on her tongue and down the back of her throat. Every time she moved, pain lit up like fireworks behind her lids, and she let out a low moan.

But she wasn't moving herself. She was being dragged. 

Whoever knocked her unconscious had a death grip on her ankles, and was steadily pulling her away from the temple where her bag was. Kyoko twisted her legs in a quick snap, breaking the person’s hold on her, and she was scrambling backwards, fear and adrenaline fueling her as she summoned a ball of light to get a look at her assailant. 

“What the _fuck_ is that,” Kyoko whispered to herself. It was humanoid, walking on two legs, but the body was hunched over, its arms too long to be proportionate, its hands too large and fingertips that were claws, its colorless eyes too far apart in a face with lips that were too thin and teeth that were rows of jagged spikes. Long, stringy hair fell from its scalp in patches down to the ground, and rotting clothes barely covered its form. Even in the dim light of the waxing moon, the thing’s skin was a sickly mixture of grey and green, and long claw marks were down its chest that oozed fresh black-colored blood. 

The thing started to circle her, moving in jerky, twitching steps as it hissed at her. Kyoko watched with sick, detached fascination as the thing’s mouth opened wider, and a tongue that had to be at least six feet long slither out, testing the air like a serpent. That tongue lashed out, faster than a whip, and Kyoko barely had time to dart out of the way. She felt a burning pain where the creature’s tongue had caught her on the shoulder, then a worrying numbness. 

“Tell me this is a joke,” Kyoko panted. “You’re venomous?” She rolled her shoulder, trying to get sensation back, but failed. 

The creature let out an ear-splitting shriek and charged at Kyoko, that tongue flinging towards her, aiming to wrap around her throat. Kyoko tried to spin out of range, but when she felt that burning pain on the back of her calf, she couldn’t help but swear angrily. She released a surge of ice, forming it into a spear-like shaft, and sent it hurling towards the thing’s already-damaged torso.

Her aim was off; the venom was taking effect quickly. The ice caught the creature in the side of the face, but speared through the dangerous tongue, ripping it in half. The thing threw itself on the ground, howling, and Kyoko raised her arm to attack again. 

Before she could get another shot in, a black mass landed in front of her, positioned between her and the monster. Her injured leg couldn’t support her weight evenly anymore, and she staggered onto her knees, struggling to keep her balance. Whatever this new fighter was, it looked like it was made out of the shadows, and it was shaped like a huge black dog. She dimly recognized the glowing red eyes as it turned to peer back at her, and she saw recent wounds on its muzzle and throat.

Swirling, multi-colored dots began to color Kyoko’s vision, so she saw only blurs of red and the creature’s greenish skin as the shadow engaged. Low, gutteral snarls and high-pitched screeches echoed around the Lazaret, and Kyoko knew the battle was over when she heard the wet crunching of bones being split open and torn apart. She fell back into her side, her legs finally giving out, and she waited for the victor to approach her.

Red eyes regarded her wearily, and the shadow slumped next to her. Kyoko reached out a hand to touch the dog’s side, and she felt the dampness of blood.

“Thank you for saving me,” Kyoko tried to say. It felt like her throat was closing, and it got harder and harder to breathe. The shadow huffed a breath, its head seeking out her hands. “At least I’m not alone,” she mused. She ran her fingers over the soft ears. As her heart did a weird hiccup, like it wasn’t working right, she thought of her shop. 

_You can save him._ The thought brushed against Kyoko's mind in her own voice, but it didn't come from her. When Kyoko looked up, a fissure of shock went through her. She was staring at herself; well, a non-dying version. It could have been her identical twin, except the eyes were iridescent and reflected in the moonlight like a predator. Kyoko's Other gave her a serene smile. _If you want to, you can save the barghest._

"Bar...ghest?" Kyoko asked, her voice faltering as she coughed. The metallic tang of blood was coating her throat. 

Kyoko's Other walked over, and put a hand lightly on the shadow's side. _A barghest, or if you ask the local mortals, a church grim. Born of despair and mourning, it's often seen as a precursor to death and despair. Your previous master must have died on this island, and you refused to leave them, poor thing._ Kyoko's Other turned to face her. _If you bind him to yourself, and let him become your familiar, you can stop his death._

"How?" Kyoko's voice was weak, too weak to be heard by human ears. The shadow had risked its life to protect her, and then sought comfort when it knew it would perish. If she could return the act, she would do it, no matter the cost. "Show me how," Kyoko demanded, her tone stronger. 

Kyoko's Other smiled again, but this time it was in triumph. Kyoko's Other grabbed her arm and made a long, deep cut with its nail. The Other guided her arm to bleed over the church grim's wounds. The spell that Kyoko began to recite wasn't one she knew. It felt like something else had taken hold of her mouth as she spoke words in a language that left a cold, bitter taste behind them, and she began speaking faster and faster as her blood flowed more swiftly onto the church grim's still form. 

_A good match, a very good match,_ Kyoko's Other said sweetly. _Now rest, my child. The venom of a grave hag is debilitating at best, and you have quite a bit in your body._

The backlash from the effort the spell hit Kyoko all at once, and she succumbed to unconsciousness in a heartbeat.

Kyoko’s breath slammed into her as she shot out of bed, a scream lodged in her throat. She stood in the middle of her small bedroom, gasping for air, her body coiled to fight as she tried to get her bearings. 

She was back at her store, upstairs. She saw her bag, still full of the purification ingredients, on the bed next to where she had been sleeping. “A nightmare,” Kyoko muttered. “It was only a nightmare.” She sank back onto the mattress and tried to stop her hands from shaking. After a few breathing exercises to control the panic she had woken up with, she went downstairs to make something that would help calm her. 

Falling into her routine in the comfort of her kitchen, she started to boil water. Something moved just beyond her field of vision, and she almost dropped the kettle when she spotted the large, dog-shaped shadow that was hiding underneath her table. Kyoko froze as the ruby eyes met hers, and she just stared. 

_Master?_

The thought brushed against her mind and made Kyoko jump a little. She eyed the beast with hesitation. "Are you....was that you?" 

_Master._

Kyoko licked her lips nervously. She sat down and offered her hand out to the beast. It slowly left its position from under the table to approach her, and when it was close, it pushed its muzzle into her palm. Its flowing tail wrapped around her in a protective gesture.

"Do you have a name?" Kyoko asked it. 

_Used to. Can't remember it. I'm YOUR familiar now._ Its eyes closed in contentment as her hands sought out the wounds she had watched it suffer the night before. When she found none, her relief was adamant. A familiar...Asra had Faust, but she doubted that the bonded pair had met the way she met hers. She couldn’t remember much about what happened after her familiar had killed that monster. She got the sense that something else had whispered the spell into her ear, but she couldn’t place what. 

“Hmm.” Kyoko peered at him for a few moments, running her hands down his lupine body. “Regis. Your name will be Regis.”


End file.
